Our Best Work - by Nilofer Merchant (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

How can we fix what we can't see? The norms crushing innovation--and our joy--are finally made visible. All 24 of them.

In Our Best Work, Nilofer Merchant names the 24 invisible norms--born of hierarchy, control, and a worn-out model of capitalism--that limit us all. Along the way, she dismantles some of management's most beloved ideas:

Servant LeadershipPersonal BrandingSpeaking UpPerformance ReviewsMove Fast and Break Things

These aren't just ideas that fall short--they are daily routines that trap us in the past. Merchant exposes how and why they fail us. But it's not enough to know the problem, we must also know how to move forward. She lights the path to the future by providing the 24 leading indicators that bring out the best of us and the best of us. Each chapter closes with a concrete practice, so teams can turn insight into action.

Ranked among the world's most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50, Merchant brings an unmatched range of experience: from her start as an administrative assistant to shaping strategy at Apple and early-stage startups to serving on corporate boards. She has experienced the realities of power from every seat at the table, across industries, and around the globe. Her ideas have already reshaped companies--and their futures. With this incisive take, Merchant offers a clear and collective path to do our best work, including:

Unlocking the essential source of innovation: new and novel ideasReplacing competition with trustCreating the solutions of tomorrow, not just today's profits

If you've tired of self-help fixes or the latest fads, Our Best Work offers another way: by changing the rules of work itself.

Review Quotes

"Refreshing and rigorous, this book takes on entrenched norms that stifle innovation and joy. Prepare to be challenged and inspired!" - Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School and bestselling author of Right Kind of Wrong
"A bracing blueprint for any leader." - Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret and Drive
"A delicious book, Our Best Work reminds us of what happens when we choose trust over fear and design a future we can be proud of together." - John Maeda, Vice President of Design & AI at Microsoft and author of The Laws of Simplicity
"By identifying hidden barriers and providing practical solutions, Merchant delivers an essential playbook for building truly collaborative, high-performing organizations where everyone can contribute their full talents." - Kristy Tillman, Former Head of Workplace Experience Design, Slack
"Our Best Work is a must-read for creating teams ready for the future." - Sanyin Siang, Founding Executive Director of Duke University's Center on Leadership and Ethics and author of The Launch Book
"Our Best Work provides powerful and proven antidotes for leaders who are bent on banishing these bad old ways of doing business." - Robert I. Sutton, Professor Emeritus at Stanford and New York Times bestselling author of The No Asshole Rule and (with Huggy Rao) The Friction Project
"This book may blow the lid off everything people think they know about how to lead and manage organizations. Merchant takes on virtually every slogan in the manager's informal handbook and shows them to be either fatuous or false, and destructive (not merely useless) to the organizations that live by them and the people who work in them." - Barry Schwartz, Visiting Professor at Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley, and author of The Paradox of Choice and Why We Work
"Brilliantly reframing what it means to create value, Our Best Work pushes us to question the systems that limit our best work and our truest selves." - Chip Conley, New York Times bestselling author of Emotional Equations and Learning to Love Midlife
"Our Best Work is the book I--and the college students and early-career innovators I work with--have been waiting for!" - Umbreen Bhatti, Constance Hess Williams '66 Director of the Athena Center for Leadership, Barnard College, Columbia University
"Merchant understands the importance of tackling structural change to ensure that the voices often unheard are the ones driving the future." - Reshma Saujani, Founder of Girls Who Code and New York Times bestselling author of Brave, Not Perfect